“Group and organizational dynamics tend to pull organizations toward average or below average performance. Psychological inertia tends to make innovation unlikely.”

“The status quo tends to defeat meaningful change because people are constrained by their basic nature and the “rules” of the environment they work in – Said another way, people don’t like change because it upsets their world and causes chaos. Every system strives hard to maintain itself and resist change.”

[Chaun Mikuleza]

This past week I was in Milwaukee for a series of senior leadership meetings. A key topic of our meetings was around the continued transformation of the business to one that can operate as a “fast and agile company”. This week’s quotes are from a presentation one of my colleagues gave in those meetings around the importance of developing a “culture of change”. They struck me as worth sharing with you, as I have always embraced the concept of change.

Change is never an easy thing. And yes, there must be a balance to how much change you push. But in truth, change is necessary. Innovation cannot occur without change…without challenging the status quo. Without it, organizations are doomed to gravitate toward mediocrity.

I can recall past resistance to change in many of the organizations I’ve worked for and with – be it technology, new processes, or simply changes to the organizational structure. “Stop changing things and let us catch our breath”, and “why would we need to do that…we already have a good process” were two of the many responses I recall. But looking back, there is no question those changes were beneficial to those organizations.

If an organization is to truly become a market leader in its industry, it must evolve. It must change. And it must create a “culture of change.”